“Silent Enemy” 20th-anniversary reflections.

When the Enterprise encounters an alien ship, Archer once again gets excited about a chance to tell some aliens that he’s from Earth. But it turns out that these aliens truly are alien, and the crew of the NX-01 find themselves in danger from a threat that has no interest in interacting in the usual way. This leads Archer to realize that the Enterprise is not equipped to deal with the realities of deep space exploration. Also weighing heavily on his mind is Malcolm’s birthday, and he sends Hoshi on a top-priority mission to discover the armory officer’s favorite food.

In this episode of Warp Five, hosts C Bryan Jones and Matthew Rushing continue our 20th-anniversary retrospective that takes you through all of Star Trek: Enterprise, one episode at a time. In this installment, we explore “Silent Enemy” and how an utterly baffling encounter with mysterious aliens helps Archer realize that deep space exploration isn’t going to be as easy as he thought. We also discuss character development for Malcolm, Archer’s care for those under his command, grumpy parents, and, of course, the search for pineapple.

Hosts
C Bryan Jones and Matthew Rushing

Production
C Bryan Jones (Editor and Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer)